Was Huck Black? : Mark Twain and African-American voices by Shelley Fisher Fishkin(
Book
)18
editions published
between
1992
and
1994
in
English
and held by
1,743 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Published in 1884, Huckberry Finn has become one of the most widely taught novels in American curricula. But where did it
come from, and what made it so distinctive? Shelly Fisher Fishkin suggests that in Huckleberry Finn, more than in any other
work, Mark Twain let African-American voices, language, and rhetorical traditions play a major role in the creation of his
art. In Was Huck Black?, Fishkin combines close readings of published and unpublished writing by Twain with intensive biographical
and historical research and insights gleaned from linguistics, literary theory, and folklore to shed new light on the role
African-American voices played in the genesis of Huckleberry Finn. Given that book's importance in American culture, her analysis
illuminates, as well, how African-American voices have shaped our sense of what is distinctively "American" about American
literature. Fishkin shows that Mark Twain was surrounded, throughout his life, by richly talented African-American speakers
whose rhetorical gifts Twain admired candidly and profusely. A black child named Jimmy whom Twain called "the most art-less,
sociable, and exhaustless talker I ever came across" helped Twain understand the potential of a vernacular narrator in the
years before he began writing Huckberry Finn, and served as a model for the voice with which Twain would transform American
literature. A slave named Jerry whom Twain referred to as an "impudent and satirical and delightful young black man" taught
Twain about "signifying"--Satire in an African-American vein - when Twain was a teenager (later Twain would recall that he
thought him "the greatest man in the United States" at the time). Other African-American voices left their mark on Twain's
imagination as well - but their role in the creation of his art has never been recognized. Was Huck Black? adds a new dimension
to current debates over multiculturalism and the canon. American literary historians have told a largely segregated story:
white writers come from white literary ancestors, black writers from black ones. The truth is more complicated and more interesting.
While African-American culture shaped Huckleberry Finn, that novel, in turn, helped shape African-American writing in the
twentieth century. As Ralph Ellison commented in an interview with Fishkin, Twain "made it possible for many of us to find
our own voices." Was Huck Black? dramatizes the crucial role of black voices in Twain's art, and takes the first steps beyond
traditional cultural boundaries to unveil an American literary heritage that is infinitely richer and more complex than we
had thought

The Mark Twain anthology : great writers on his life and works(
Book
)12
editions published
in
2010
in
English
and held by
1,108 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Brings together the words of over 60 writers, from Twain's earliest reviews to today, probing the many facets of his incomparable
humor, his revolutionary use of vernacular language, his exploration of the realities of American life, and his fearless opposition
to the injustices and outrages of an imperialistic age

The encyclopedia of civil rights in America(
Book
)7
editions published
in
1998
in
English
and held by
1,077 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Contains 683 alphabetically arranged articles that provide information about the history, meaning, and application of civil
rights issues in the United States, covering people, places, events, politics, laws, government agencies, court cases, and
other topics

Is he dead? : a comedy in three acts by Mark Twain(
Book
)18
editions published
between
2003
and
2011
in
English and Undetermined
and held by
815 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"This comedy, which has never appeared in print or on stage, is at last available to the wide audience Mark Twain always wished
it to reach. Written in 1898 in Vienna, as Twain emerged from one of the deepest depressions of his life, Is He Dead? shows
his superb gift for humor operating at its most energetic. A reflection of Twain's perennial fascination with the theater,
the play is sure to become a treasured addition to his remarkable legacy." "Elements of farce and social satire work together
in Is He Dead? as Twain takes a characteristically wry look at the world market in art. The play centers on a group of poor
artists in Barbizon, France, who stage the death of a friend to drive up the price of his paintings. In order to make this
scheme succeed, the artists hatch various hilarious plots involving cross-dressing, a full-scale fake funeral, lovers' deceptions,
and much more."--Jacket

How to tell a story, and other essays by Mark Twain(
Book
)8
editions published
between
1897
and
1996
in
English
and held by
717 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Introduction by David Bradley. Afterword by Pascal Covici, Jr

Writing America : literary landmarks from Walden Pond to Wounded Knee, a reader's companion by Shelley Fisher Fishkin(
Book
)6
editions published
between
2015
and
2017
in
English
and held by
707 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Presents descriptions and illustrations of over 150 historical landmarks associated with well-known American writers and poets,
discussing the influence these sites had on their development as artists and on the creation of their works. --Publisher's
description

1601 ; and, Is Shakespeare dead? by Mark Twain(
Book
)7
editions published
between
1882
and
1996
in
English
and held by
690 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Is Shakespeare dead?: This short, semi-autobiographical work is a study of Shakespeare's role in English literature which
explores the controversy over the authorship of the Shakespearean literary canon via satire, anecdote, and extensive quotation
of contemporary authors on the subject

A historical guide to Mark Twain(
Book
)19
editions published
in
2002
in
English and Undetermined
and held by
670 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
The Historical Guides to American Authors is an interdisciplinary, historically sensitive series that combines close attention
to the United States' most widely read and studied authors with a strong sense of time, place, and history. Placing each writer
in the contect of the vibrant relationship between literature and contemporary social, political, and cultural relevance.
they also include a capsule biography and illustrated chronology detailing important cultural events as they coincided with
the author's life and works, while photographs and illustrations dating from the period capture the flavor of the author's
time and social milieu. Equally accessible to students of literature and of life, the volumes offer a complete and rounded
picture of each author in his or her America. -- back cover

Mark Twain's book of animals by Mark Twain(
Book
)20
editions published
between
2009
and
2011
in
English and Undetermined
and held by
574 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Longtime admirers of Mark Twain are aware of how integral animals were to his work as a writer, starting with the first stories
to bring him national acclaim and continuing through his final years, with many of these pieces left unpublished at his death.
This beautiful volume, illustrated with 30 new images by master engraver Barry Moser, gathers writings from the full span
of Mark Twain's career and elucidates his special attachment to and regard for animals. What may surprise even longtime readers
and fans is that Twain was an early and ardent animal welfare advocate, the most prominent American of his day to take up
that cause. Edited and selected by Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who has also supplied an introduction and afterword, Mark Twain's
Book of Animals includes stories that are familiar along with those that are appearing in print for the first time. We encounter
Twain at his silliest, his most philosophical, his most sardonic, and his most sentimental. Texts are dark as well as playful,
repellent as well as appealing-as full of variety, complexity, surprise, and delight as the author himself-and bring into
sharp relief a rarely observed aspect of Twain's work

The sport of the gods : and other essential writings by Paul Laurence Dunbar(
Book
)5
editions published
in
2005
in
English
and held by
238 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) overcame racism and poverty to become one of the best-known authors in America, and the
first African American to earn a living from his poetry, fiction, drama, journalism, and lectures. This original collection
includes the short novel The Sport of the Gods, Dunbar's essential essays and short stories, and his finest poems, such as
"Sympathy," all of which explore crucial social, political, and humanistic issues at the dawn of the twentieth century. A
hundred years after Dunbar's untimely death, this hugely talented writer is due for a major rediscovery."--Jacket

The Oxford Mark Twain by Mark Twain(
Book
)1
edition published
in
1996
in
English
and held by
69 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide

Anthology of American literature(
Book
)3
editions published
in
2011
in
English
and held by
47 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
This two-volume series represents America's literary heritage from colonial times through the American renaissance to the
contemporary era of post-modernism. Volume I offers early contextual selections from Christopher Columbus and Gaspar Perez
de Villagra, as well as an excerpt from the Iroquois League's Constitution of the Five Nations, and ends with an extensive
selection of the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. This anthology is best known for its useful pedagogy, including
extensive and straightforward headnotes and introductions, as well as its balanced approach to editorial selection process

Silences by Tillie Olsen(
Book
)6
editions published
between
2003
and
2014
in
English and Undetermined
and held by
3 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Special 25th anniversary edition of the landmark survey that revolutionized the view of literary history